1,721,264 research outputs found
The sensibility of bedside tests of balance and mobility
No full textIntroduction: The development of new clinical instruments typically involves assessment of validity, reliability, and responsiveness, but not sensibility. Sensibility refers to the ease of use of an instrument, and its appropriateness to the population and setting of interest. Sensibility may be an important determinant of the uptake of an instrument into clinical practice. We evaluated the sensibility of 5 clinical measures of balance and mobility. Methods: Hospitalized seniors completed 5 measures of mobility and balance: the Timed Up and Go (TUG), the Functional Reach (FR), the Physical Performance and Mobility Exam (PPME), the Tinetti Gait and Balance (TGB), and the Hierarchical Assessment of Balance and Mobility (HABAM). We assessed ease and time of administration. The subjects views were assessed by asking if the test bothered them in any way and if they would mind doing the test daily. Users' views were assessed by asking 26 internal medicine residents to rate each instrument on whether it provided useful information, and whether it could be incorporated into their daily rounds. A general linear model was used to compare the mean time to administer each test. Non-parametric measures were used to evaluate the residents' Likert rankings. Results: 19 patients (89% female, mean age 82.7) agreed to participate. Mean test administration times, in minutes, were: TGB (2.9±1.3), TUG (3.5±2.0), FR (2.7±1.6), PPME (8.6±3.6), and HABAM (2.6±1.0). Administration time for the PPME was significantly greater than that for the other instruments (p<0.01). Residents were more likely to say that the HABAM provided useful information than all other tests. As well, residents were more likely to say that they would use the HABAM, FR, and TUG during their daily rounds. Conclusions: The sensibility of clinical tests may determine their uptake into daily practice. Assessment of the sensibility of clinimetric tests should be added to the traditional assessments of validity, reliability and responsiveness
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Patterns of clinically detectable treatment effects with galantamine: a qualitative analysis
No full textThe Clinician's Interview Based Impression of Change, plus carer interview (CIBIC-Plus) is widely used in anti-dementia drug trials. It includes clinicians' notes about patients' behaviour, function, and cognition, and a 7-point clinical global impression of change scale that summarizes patients' changes during treatment. We analyzed the narrative content of clinicians' notes from a randomized, controlled trial of galantamine, an anti-Alzheimer's disease drug, and identified varying degrees of improvement and decline. In general, while most patients were rated as showing 'no change', considerable changes were seen in such patients, but were judged by clinicians to have been offset by decline in other areas. Most patients rated as 'improved' showed combinations of cognitive, functional and/or behavioural improvement or stability. While patients with signs of cognitive improvement could be found across the scale from 'very much improved' to 'minimally worse', patients with functional improvement were rated as having improved or not having changed. Cognitive declines in several domains or any cognitive decline seen with functional declines were the chief drivers of worsening ratings. The CIBIC-Plus notes have potential value in identifying reproducible patterns of clinically relevant treatment effects provided that data are consistent and specific, and that seemingly contradictory information is carefully explored. Clinicians appear to be skeptical of cognitive changes not supported by like changes in function or behaviour
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
The validation of a care partner-derived frailty index based upon comprehensive geriatric assessment (CP-FI-CGA) in emergency medical services and geriatric ambulatory care
No full textBackground: the derivation of a frailty index (FI) based on deficit accumulation from a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) has been criticised as cumbersome. To improve feasibility, we developed a questionnaire based on a CGA that can be completed by care partners (CP-FI-CGA) and assessed its validity.
Methods: we enrolled a convenience sample of patients aged 70 or older (n = 203) presenting to emergency medical services (EMS) or geriatric ambulatory care (GAC). To test construct validity, we evaluated the shape of the CP-FI-CGA distribution, including its maximum value, relationship with age and gender. Criterion validity was evaluated by survival analysis and by the correlation between the CP-FI-CGA and specialist-completed FI-CGA.
Results: the mean age was 82.2 ± 5.9 years. Most patients were women (62.1%), unmarried (widowed, divorced and single) (59.6%) and lived in their own home or apartment (78.3%). The mean CP-FI-CGA was 0.41 ± 0.15 and was higher in the EMS group (0.45 ± 0.15) than in GAC (0.37 ± 0.14) (P < 0.001). The CP-FI-CGA correlated well with the specialist-completed FI-CGA (0.7; P < 0.05). People who died had a higher CP-FI-CGA than did survivors (0.48 ± 0.13 versus 0.38 ± 0.15). Each 0.01 increase in the FI was associated with a higher risk of death (HR 1.04; 95% CI 1.02–1.06).
Conclusion: the CP-FI-CGA has properties that resemble other published FIs and may be useful in busy clinical practice for grading degrees of frailty. It efficiently integrates information from care partners so that it can help guide decision-making
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